The Newsroom

The Complete First Season

The Newsroom takes a behind-the-scenes look at a high-rated cable-news program at the fictional ACN Network, focusing on the on and off camera lives of its acerbic anchor, a new executive producer, and their newsroom staff.

Engaging, funny and sobering look at how very little things have changed in the political sphere since the Bush years. Jeff Daniels is very good as a Republican newscaster who is a bit disturbed by the direction his party is moving in and who, with his exec producer played by Emily Mortimer, is pioneering a new news format: the truth. And who wouldn't love seeing Sam Waterston as their boss navigating that fine line between truth and ratings? Or Jane Fonda as the bitch owner of the station, more interested in money and political influence than honesty? If anything, the characters are a bit too noble but, in times like these, that's welcome.

It is amazing how little has changed or gotten even worse for those trying to give us the truth about politics in the last ten years. What has happened to us? We need to support a free press! "Newsroom" shows how difficult it is to give us the news with the pressures of advertisers, political candidates, political parties and special interest groups. It is no easy job!

This series is written by Aaron Sorkin so it is intelligent and thought provoking. Yes, there is speechifying that is idealistic and over-the-top, but hey, it's Aaron Sorkin! However, his female characters are awful: over-emotional, unprofessional, and annoying (especially Mackenzie). The personal shouting matches that occur in the newsroom are ridiculous. So 5 stars for making us pine for higher ideals in TV news reporting, but minus 1.5 for the poorly written women and the public displays of histrionics. There is enough drama in reporting the news.

Quotes

Sloan Sabbith : “The Greater Fool is … a patsy. For the rest of us to profit, we need a greater fool, someone who will buy long and sell short. Most people spend their lives trying not to be the greater fool; we toss in the hot potato, we dive for his seat when the music stops. The greater fool is someone with the perfect blend of self-delusion and ego to think that he can succeed where others have failed. This whole country was made by greater fools.”

Will: And yeah, you, sorority girl. Just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there's some things you should know, and one of them is, there's absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, 3rd in median household income, number 4 in labor force, and number 4 in exports

We lead the world in only 3 categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined. 25 of whom are allies. Now, none of this is the fault of a 20 year old college student. But you, nonetheless, are without a doubt a member of the worst. generation. ever. So when you ask, "what makes us the greatest country in the world?" I dunno know what the fuck you're talking about. Yosemite? [Pause] We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors

We put our money where our mouths were. And we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men. We aspired to intelligence, we didn't belittle it, it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in our last election. And we didn't... we didn't scare so easy. We were able to be all these things, and to do all these things, because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered. First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore. [Pause] Enough?